New Year's 2019

Sneaky

Tired

Hate Messy House

Best You Can Give

A Few Christmas Giggles

Seasonal Stress

Christmas Wishes 2018

 

 

Looks as if my family is in need of a miracle this season so if you could please send prayers, healing energy, positive thoughts, blessings, good vibes, whatever your belief system...for my oldest DIL, I would be forever grateful.  Thank you!

Grandma

Rudolph

 How Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Came to Be

 

A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night. His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bobs wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer. Little Barbara couldn’t understand why her mommy could never come home. Barbara looked up into her dad’s eyes and asked, “Why isn’t Mommy just like everybody else’s Mommy?” Bob’s jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears.

Her question brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been the story of Bob’s life. Life always had to be different for Bob. Small when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was often called names he’d rather not remember. From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his little girl. But it was all short-lived. Evelyn’s bout with cancer stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in he Chicago slums.  Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.

Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn’t even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn’t buy a gift, he was determined a make one – a storybook! Bob had created a character in his own mind and told the animal’s story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope. Again and again Bob told the story, embellishing it more with each telling. Who was the character? What was the story all about? The story Bob May created was his own autobiography in fable form. The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. The name of the character? A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose. Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day.

But the story doesn’t end here.

The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book. Wards went on to print, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph. That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book.

In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May. The book became a best seller. Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter.

But the story doesn’t end here either.

Bob’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of “White Christmas".

The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on returning back to bless him again and again. And Bob May learned the lesson, just like his dear friend Rudolph, that being different isn’t so bad.

In fact, being different can be a blessing.

Received this in an email and haven't had a chance to fact check...passing along for the uplifting message.

Christmas Tree

Stop Screaming

 

Santa Claus

Conversation with Santa

Broke the Car!

Joy

Such a 'joyful' group.

Jingle Bells

This article was sent to me as the origin of the song Jingle Bells...haven't fact checked it but makes for an interesting story. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The year was 1857. Pony express riders carried mail to the Wild West, England’s Queen Victoria sent greetings to U.S. President James Buchanan over the first Atlantic cable, and a Boston man published a holiday song that has remained popular for more than one hundred and fifty years.

The name of this song? It was copyrighted as “One Horse Open Sleigh,” but you probably know it as “Jingle Bells.” Many songbooks credit the song to “Traditional” or “Anonymous,” but the real composer was James Pierpont. I learned about him from Marilyn Pincus, who wrote:

“In 1850, James Pierpont was living at his father’s home in West Medford, Massachusetts. Winter sleigh rides provided recreation as well as transportation in New England; and frequent open-sleigh races were run near the Pierpont home.

“No doubt inspired by these spirited sleigh rides, James composed the tune to his now famous ‘One Horse Open Sleigh.’ Once he had the melody in mind, he walked to a nearby boarding house to try it out on the only piano in town. When he played his tune, Mary Waterman, one of the boarders, exclaimed, ‘That’s a merry jingle!’ Her comment probably influenced the lyrics Pierpont went on to write.

“James Pierpont died in 1893. Fifty years later, when Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded ‘Jingle Bells,’ over one million copies were sold. Technology had come a long way since the days of the pony express, and ‘Jingle Bells’ had come a long way since the day it was played on the only piano in town!”

Courtesy of  MSN Kids

Coffee...

Hmmm...haven't ever cared for coffee but just might have to acquire a taste for it...

Bathtub Test

Pssst...

 

Go Ahead...

Irish Spirituality

Filling My Pockets